dulciemae (Offline)  

I've only been in Lupton, North Hill Court and James Baillie, so I can only speak for them. North Hill Court's rooms are absolutely enormous and there is a small communal space, however the kitchen is basically a cupboard and would personally drive me insane. James Baillie has a really nice communal area and I'm quite jealous of their rooms, but not their rent!!

I haven't liked my poetry module so far - I've never really got along with poetry and it's compulsory for single honours students, so bleh. Medieval Lit I've absolutely adored, so if you get the option take the latter! The Rah rep really doesn't reflect the reality of the place. Anyone who says "chundered" does so satirically.

There's a lot of partying if you want to, but also people who don't want to go out. I've been on a few nights out but I don't like clubbing so I tend to do other things. The gap year I took definitely prepared me for uni - it made me really I never wanted to scan groceries again!

haha fair point...But I suppose no company would employ a person that they found un-attractive because sub-consciously it could have an adverse effect on the business? I don't really see anyone as particularly ugly as God made all of us and we all look different..No biggie.

What's wrong with Hollister?! If they weren't like that my part time job would be no more

DO IT!!! I've been absolutely loving Leeds so far and would recommend the department to anyone

Freshers was okay! It was a bit of a blur of meeting people, but the people I met in the first week have remained my good friends up until now and I think they will remain so throughout my time at Leeds! People do have little friendship groups after a while but they're not clicky - everyone is really friendly.

There are some rahs :P However it's not as bad as the reputation makes out, and most of the people I've met have been very normal. (Okay, so maybe Sebastian Faulk's son is on my course... but honestly it's full of normal people!)

Lupton is definitely liveable, and the facilities are good and well maintained. However, I have found the kitchen quite cramped and there's no communal space, so I sometimes feel isolated. My flatmate normally brings her laptop into my room and we hang out :P If that's a concern of yours, it's something to bear in mind. It's certainly good enough for a year though.

In Headingley, yeah, at least every 3rd person is like that. Thing is, I've lived here 18 months and never spoken to a single one of them. I just ignore them tbh. Plenty of other places to go in Leeds that they'll never go near. Burley has a few decent pubs and there are loads of bars / clubs in town / at the SU that don't get filled by these idiots. Yeah, Leeds is mental. Depends where you go though tbh. I know some places where you'd be hard pushed to find anyone but drug fueled ravers (which are normall y quite nice alternative people), but there are plenty of places where you'll find jumped up coke heads (like Greek street). However, these are the minority really. There are plenty of places in town you can go for a night out and just find the average person just out to have a laugh. House parties tend to be an odd mix of everyone. I've seen a few fights, nothing too crazy though. There's a fair visible police force in Leeds anyway. TBH, the worst places for it you'll likely never visit - Gipton, Chapeltown, Beeston etc...

So yeah, there are dickheads, but they are easily avoided out of uni. In it I can't say! Haha! We do have ugly buildings... but get this... the top one in the following link won an award - http://www.leedsguide.co.uk/review/p...hortlist/16260 It's honestly worse in real life too!

Hey. I've never been a student at uni, so I can't really comment on accomodation.

Headingley is full of rahs. They're a dime a dozen. Burley Park is for normal, not up their own ass types. Much better people, but the area ins't quite as nice. The social scene in Leeds is pretty damn good tbh. Plenty of different venues convering every kind of music and a really decent live scene if you're not expecting the big bands to come playing (though when the new arena is built, that'll be fine and the train station gives access to all the big venues like MEN). I'd avoid Greek Street in town if I were you. It's worse than the Headingley bars for ass holes...
Honestly, if you like the uni, come live here. It's easy enough to avoid the rahs entirely. Until I moved to Headingley I didn't really know they were about much. for the future, be very careful when moving in to a shared house. If an aagency says it'll be done up for you, they're probably liars. If it ain't already in a good state, leave it.

Haha, well definitely better than Essex! London is a great night out, but it can be quite spread out and also very expensive. Leeds has the benefit that everything is pretty close together, and that everything (drnks, entry fees, taxis etc) are really affordable - especially on student nights but not too bad on weekends either!

Yeah I used to know people in Lupton - its a good location in the heart of Headingley, so andy for all the pubs, bars, shops, cafes et. One of the cheaper halls too I think, and probably less of the snobs there (compared to, say, Devonshire hall), which is where the rahs love hanging out!.

haha, I've been to a few cities in my time, Leeds is definitely a good one for going out in!

I stayed in Bodington Hall, it was always really social but it's quite a way out of town, think it might be getting closed down soon too Not sure which halls have the reputation of being most social these days... prob one of the ones around Headingley or near the campus would be best!

Sheffield is a cool city, quite nice in the centre and got some decent places to go out in, also pretty cheap. I wouldn't say it compares to Leeds though, there's just a lot more of a buzz here

Haha, anywhere in the Russell Group you'll get a few snobs, but it's easy enough to avoid them in Leeds I think... apparently less so in places like Bristol or St Andrews!

No worries, I remember when I was looking through unis I was full of questions... all those years ago!!

Hey, I can confirm that Leeds is awesome for nightlife! There are loads of bars and clubs, and tonnes of student nightlife throughout the week and weekend for whatever sort of music you're into, plenty of cheap drinks too! I've not been on many student nights in the last few years as I'm getting on a bit now, but I hear it's still great. There's lots of nicer bars as well and good places to drink down by the river and canal, and suburbs like Headingley are really studenty and have loads of places to go out - the area's famous for a big 6 pub crawl called the Otley Run that everyone does in fancy dres... pretty much mayhem!

In terms of the people there, there are quite a lot of posh Oxbridge rejects, but most people are totally normal and from all over the country - it's very easy to avoid the public school brigade I certainly managed it! Other than all that, Leeds is a cool city for things like shopping and getting around - it has everything you'd expect of a big city but is easy to get arund the centre of it quite quickly as it all compact. The uni campus is a nice place too. I'd defo recommend - let me know if you need any more info

Hey dulciemae!

Thanks for getting in touch :-)

Well first of all, just being a smiley, happy, outgoing person (in a safe and sensible way that is!) will work wonders in terms of meeting friends whilst youre travelling. However, jumping on a tour would certainly be one of the simplest and most guaranteed way of travelling and meeting people.

If they are the kind of thing you are interested in, I'd really recommend that you pop into your nearest STA branch and have a chat with one of our travel experts as they will be able to talk you through eeeeverything you could possibly want to know and help work out which tour may be best for you.

There are also bus passes which let you travel around in a group and do loads of fun activities, without being pinned down to one set of people - you can hop on the bus the next day for a new set of people if you like! Australia and New Zealand are two particular good countries to do like this in my opinion and you'd have to be a pretty antisocial person to NOT make friends on them! - just ask an STA Travel Expert to explain a bit more to you. Here's a link for Australia to give you a better idea: http://www.statravel.co.uk/australia-bus-rail-pass.htm

But if you don't fancy going on a tour or feel like mixing things up a bit, my advice for meeting people in general would be to get yourself a good guide book for the area (Lonely Planet is always a safe bet!) and try to stay in hostels that come highly recommended and popular with backpackers. It's amazing how quickly you can get chatting to people in the communal areas there! Try to get involved in any events the hostel may be hosting too.

Sticking to relatively well established travel or tourist routes would also help as there's a greater chance that you'll be bumping into the same people and meeting similar people.

I hope this helps!

:-)

Claire